<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>the color of your love (sparkles as bright as your eyes) by BookFangirlMaryJane</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27644855">the color of your love (sparkles as bright as your eyes)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookFangirlMaryJane/pseuds/BookFangirlMaryJane'>BookFangirlMaryJane</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Thoschei Spyvember Prompts [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>13 building stuff, A little, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Off-screen smut, Post-Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Spoilers, Spyvember Prompts (Doctor Who), Thoschei, because i can't write smut, mood rings, the Master being resigned to her antics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:41:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,358</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27644855</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookFangirlMaryJane/pseuds/BookFangirlMaryJane</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“This is ridiculous,” the Master mutters.<br/>“Hush,” the Doctor admonishes him, carefully staring at his hand and then at the instruction manual she’s holding. “It should start working… now.”<br/>They both look down at the ring. It doesn’t change color. The Doctor’s face falls. “Oh.”</p><p>--o--</p><p>Written for Spyvember (by ineternity and Valc0), prompt was 'Mood Rings'.</p><p>Warnings: spoilers for series 12 of Doctor Who, also a little off-screen smut and kissing.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Thoschei Spyvember Prompts [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2017984</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the color of your love (sparkles as bright as your eyes)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Okay, this is... something.<br/>But it's fluffy (I guess) and I don't have anything else.<br/>I made some last-minute edits, so forgive me if there are any typos or spelling errors...</p><p>Read on!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>“This is ridiculous,” the Master mutters.</p><p>“Hush,” the Doctor admonishes him, carefully staring at his hand and then at the instruction manual she’s holding. “It should start working… now.”</p><p>They both look down at the ring. It doesn’t change color. The Doctor’s face falls. “Oh.”</p><p>“Like I said, ridiculous. Can I take it off now? It looks stupid, anyway.” He waves his hand in front of the Doctor’s face and she slides it off, looking dejected. “I really thought this would work,” she says with a sigh.</p><p>He pats her cheek in mock-concern. “How sad for you.”</p><p>When she looks at him, the Master flashes her a smirk and takes his hand away. He turns and leaves the room. In the door, he calls back to her: “Those things are cheap fakes, anyway. It was clear that it wouldn’t work from the start.” He doesn’t turn back. He doesn’t see the Doctor’s eyes sharpen, narrowing at the plastic mood ring in consideration.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>—o—</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>It shouldn’t be hard, the Doctor considers as she looks down at her workstation, at the pieces of metal and other parts strewn all around. She just needs to find something to detect emotions, to detect the mood, and then make it change color. Through skin contact, so maybe…</p><p>Yes, that could work!</p><p>Those cheap things rely on temperature, that’s why it didn’t work. And anyway, that’s not a good way to measure emotions. Especially for them. She’d have to rig the whole system. She could, of course she could, but it still wouldn’t be <strong>accurate</strong>.</p><p>For a few hours, the Doctor is busy tinkering and experimenting and wiring. The Master is… somewhere. Probably reading. He’ll come find her once he’s bored, though, and she doesn’t want him to see this yet. He’d try to stop her, or try to get involved. This is <strong>her</strong> project. She’s clever enough to finish it on her own.</p><p>But when her third prototype still fails, the Doctor stops for the day and goes seeking for her best enemy. Maybe they can have some adventures. She’s frustrated enough to run around and save some people. And, she considers with pursed lips, if they were to take a detour for her to get some supplies… Some more pieces to test, something more effective.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>—o—</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>The Master, as it turns out, <strong>is</strong> willing to go out and save some people. “Only because I’m utterly bored,” is his reasoning. He does look bored. She takes it, anyway. At least he’s not killing innocent people anymore.</p><p>When they return, they’re both in high spirits. To save a planet, they had to blow up a Dalek ship and the Doctor didn’t see anything wrong with letting him press the button. Maybe she should have. He took far too much pleasure from it.</p><p>Then again, so would she.</p><p>The Doctor, on the other hand, is incredibly pleased for an entirely different reason. She got her hands on just the thing she needs to get her mood rings working. It’s a brilliant solution and she wants to try it out right now.</p><p>Of course, he has other plans. Still riding on a high of murder, the Master presses her to the console the moment they’re safely sailing through the vortex. His lips are hot against hers and the Doctor feels herself losing her train of thought. Well. A few more hours won’t hurt.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>—o—</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>In the middle of the night, the Doctor wakes up with the urge to finish her project. Careful not to wake the Master curled around her, she slips from the bed and gets dressed. He mumbles something, frowns and turns over towards where she’d been just moments ago. She winces and hopes he won’t wake until she’s done.</p><p>She starts with the main part, a pretty stone with telepathic properties, tests its abilities and limits, writes it all down and then melds it into the form she already crafted for her first tries. It fits perfectly, and when she slides one of the rings on her finger, it radiates a yellowish green. Her smile widens and she lets out a whoop of joy.</p><p>"Doctor, what are you <strong>doing</strong>?" a voice asks from the door, and the Doctor looks up the see the Master standing there, looking rather grumpy to be awake. “Why are you out of bed? It’s the middle of the night, what are you so weirdly happy about?”</p><p>He frowns down at her. She grins back and holds out the ring. “I made us mood rings! And they’re working, see?” To prove it, she holds up her hand. The ring is glowing green, tinged with just a few flecks of white and purple.</p><p>For a moment, the Master is speechless. Then he comes closer. “What do the colors mean?” he asks, unable to stop himself. She grins and grabs his hand. “Green is happiness.” She slides a ring over his finger. It starts shining yellow-purple. “Yellow is curiosity or anticipation. Purple is the normal color, for if you’re relaxed and calm.”</p><p>He takes his hand back and examines the ring closer. “Aren’t those the stones from the mines that got blown up earlier?” he asks, turning his hand a few times. The yellow takes over more of the purple.</p><p>“Yup. I saw them and thought they’d work brilliantly. They’re psychic. It’s far more accurate than those fake plastic ones.”</p><p>The Master looks up at her and smiles. “Only you, Doctor. Only you would see psychic rocks in the middle of a life-and-death situation and think about how they’d work for some project of yours.” Her cheeks flush. “Well. Well, yeah.”</p><p>Specks of white light draw his attention back to his hand. “What are the rest of the colors?”</p><p>The Doctor’s smile softens a little. “Well, I’ve made a chart. It’s not perfect yet, I’ll have to add some more colors later on, but I’ve got the ones most likely to be needed. Black is murderous.” The Master lets out a bark of laughter and she rolls her eyes. “Red is anger. Orange is fear or nervousness. Blue is sadness. And I’ve already explained the rest.”</p><p>He raises a brow and his hand, pointedly showing her the white spots.</p><p>“White means love,” she mutters, ducking her head and twisting her own ring, orange-green with flecks of white.</p><p>For a moment, the Master is frozen. The only thing that changes is the white on his ring. It grows even stronger. The Doctor doesn’t look at it, instead fidgets with her own ring, its light turning more orange by the second.</p><p>“Doctor, how you can be so brilliant but an utter idiot at the same time, I will never understand,” he says in the end, tugging her in for a kiss. She makes a surprised noise against his lips and then melts into it. While they kiss, their rings flash white-pink. The Master pulls away first and smiles softly at the Doctor.</p><p>“This is very nice, Doctor. But you don’t need a ring to tell you that I love you.” For a moment, the words hang in the room, then the Doctor smiles at him. “I love you, too.”</p><p>Her ring sparkles white-pink.</p><p>“Hey, you didn’t say what pink means,” the Master observes. When the Doctor blushes, he raises his eyebrows. “Oh, what are you hiding?” She stutters: “N-nothing. It’s… Uhm, well.” Her hand gestures are even less clear. But from his widening smirk, the Doctor can tell he’s already figured out what pink stands for.</p><p>Grinning like a madman, the Master tugs her into his arms. “Could it possibly be the emotion responsible for you ending up in my bed, undressed, Doctor?” Her cheeks flush bright pink and he laughs. “Well, then.” His ring sparkles the same shade of pink as the Doctor's face. “You know, suddenly these mood rings don't seem so bad anymore. You’re never taking that thing off again.”</p><p>While he leads her out of the room, he comments: “I wonder what color it would turn if I were to choke you again.” Her squeak of embarrassment is drowned out entirely by his cackle of utter glee.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>
    <span class="u">The End</span>
  </strong>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yeeah, so I'm not sure about the ending. It feels a bit rushed. Sorry.</p><p>The original idea was that the Doctor saw a mood ring in some shop, bought it and decided to have the Master wear it so she can make sure he doesn't kill people. Obviously, it did not work out that way. Mostly because our two idiots have a normal body temperature of 16°C/60°F and, as far as I'm aware of how mood rings work, those things use temperature to change color.</p><p>For reference, I'm putting the mood colors here:<br/>Black - murderous (as in, the ring detects that the wearer is seconds away from murdering someone)<br/>Red - anger (because you need to know when your Local Psychopath is getting angry)<br/>Orange - Fear/Nervousness (they're kinda on the same scale? one is the precursory emotion for the other)<br/>Green - Happiness (this was calm at first but then I changed it because green is happy)<br/>Blue - Sadness (almost forgot this one oops)<br/>White - Love (this used to be pink but then I thought the Master won't appreciate that color for love)<br/>Yellow - Curiosity/Anticipation (they're also kinda linked?)<br/>Purple - Calm (because the Master wearing a purple ring actually fits with his coat)<br/>Pink - Lust/Arousal/Attraction (I almost didn't put this in, but then I did)</p><p>I didn't put more because it would've gotten confusing. Hell, it's already confusing. I looked at actual mood ring charts and the colors were assigned stupidly, so I shuffled it around. And coincidentally, purple is the default color. I kept that one. It seemed funny.</p><p>The title is... something. I had a hard time choosing it. Kept going with different versions of 'the color of your love is' bits. Like, for the most part it was 'the color of your love (is as pretty as you are)' but then that felt a bit stupid so I made it 'as beautiful as you are' but that also didn't quite fit, and then I had the idea with the eyes. I just. I don't know. Titles are stupid.</p><p>I can't write smut, so I only alluded to it. I also have no clue how to assemble a mood ring, that's why that part is cut out. The Doctor is the genius, not me. She probably did something clever.</p><p>I don't know, I feel like I'm losing the focus that drove me to write the other stories. It might be going downhill from here on.</p><p> </p><p>There won't be a story tomorrow. I have no ideas for 'Road Trip'. They're in the TARDIS. There is no Road Trip element to the TARDIS. Or, other way round, there are ONLY Road Trip elements to the TARDIS. Sorry. But I am working on something for the day after, promise!</p><p>Have a nice day, wear a mask, wash your hands and keep on being awesome!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>